26 - Bride kidnapping. East and Southeast Asia.

Bride kidnapping. East and Southeast Asia.  Indonesia.  In Bali tradition, Ngerorod is the tradition of abducting women for marrying when the caste of the man is lower than the woman. The Balinese caste order –from higher to lower – is: 1. Brahmanas (priests) 2. Satrias (warriors) 3. Wesias (merchants) 4. Sudras (labourers). The process from 'kidnapping' to marriage ritual is usually done in 3 steps (usually completed in 3 days):  - Kidnapping the woman.  - Sending a messenger to inform the woman's family.  - The marriage.  After the marriage, the woman will change or remove her name prefix which reflects her caste before the marriage. In modern days, this practice is still going on with more permissive manner, like the woman parents know in advance when the kidnapping will happen, when the messenger will come, and when and where the marriage will take place.  This tradition is also practiced by Balinese not living in Bali: Balinese living in Lombok island, Balinese living in Lampung, etc.  In Lombok, the Sasak people have a marriage tradition called merariq, which is a marriage tradition involving 'elopement'. In this tradition, a man will kidnap or carry away a girl to be his wife before performing the wedding ritual.  Hmong culture.  Marriage by abduction also occurs in traditional Hmong culture, in which it is known as zij poj niam. As in some other cultures, bride kidnapping is generally a joint effort between the would-be groom and his friends and family. Generally, the abductor takes the woman while she is alone. The abductor then sends a message to the kidnap victim's family, informing them of the abduction and the abductor's intent to marry their daughter. If the victim's family manage to find the woman and insist on her return, they might be able to free her from the obligation to marry the man. However, if they fail to find the woman, the kidnap victim is forced to marry the man. The abductor still has to pay a bride price for the woman, generally an increased amount because of the kidnapping. Because of this increased cost (and the general unpleasantness of abduction), kidnapping is usually only a practice reserved for a man with an otherwise blemished chance of securing a bride, because of criminal background, illness or poverty.  Occasionally, members of the Hmong ethnic group have engaged in bride kidnapping in the United States. In some cases, the defendant has been allowed to plead a cultural defense to justify his abduction. This defense has sometimes been successful. In 1985, Kong Moua, a Hmong man, kidnapped and raped a woman from a Californian college. He later claimed that this was an act of zij poj niam and was allowed to plead to false imprisonment only, instead of kidnapping and rape. The judge in this case considered cultural testimony as an explanation of the man's crime.  China.  Until the 1940s, marriage by abduction, known as qiangqin, occurred in rural areas of China. Though illegal in imperial China, for rural areas it often became a local "institution". According to one scholar, marriage by abduction was sometimes a groom's answer to avoid paying a bride price. In other cases, the scholar argues, it was a collusive act between the bride's parents and the groom to circumvent the bride's consent.  Chinese scholars theorise that this practice of marriage by abduction became the inspiration for a form of institutionalised public expression for women: the bridal lament. In imperial China, a new bride performed a two- to three-day public song, including chanting and sobbing, that listed her woes and complaints. The bridal lament would be witnessed by members of her family and the local community.  In recent years bride kidnapping has resurfaced in areas of China. In many cases, the women are kidnapped and sold to men in poorer regions of China, or as far abroad as Mongolia. Reports say that buying a kidnapped bride is nearly one tenth of the price of hosting a traditional wedding. The United States Department of State tie this trend of abducting brides to China's one-child policy, and the consequent gender imbalance as more male children are born than female children.  Tibet.  Bride abduction also occurred in Tibetan history, sometimes involving ceremonial mock abductions or as a bargaining procedure.  Japan.  According to a study conducted by Kunio Yanagita, a scholar of Folklore in Japan, three patterns of bride kidnapping are known to have existed in Japan:  - A man and his cooperators kidnap a woman without notifying her parents;  - Bride kidnapping that may occur after parents forbid marriage out of fear for their daughter's social reputation;  - Bride kidnapping as an alternative path to marriage for couples unable to pay for a typical wedding.  In Buraku of Kochi, there was the custom of bride kidnapping named katagu. Wikipedia: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.This episode includes AI-generated content.